


Mystery Girl

by alto24ninja7



Category: Watch Dogs (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s), Romance, Some Humor, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2018-12-10 03:57:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11683545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alto24ninja7/pseuds/alto24ninja7
Summary: Madison Cooke has been living in San Francisco since she left her home - Chicago - 3 years ago. She's been living a quiet, normal life without having any problems to deal with.But when her adopted father's ex-partner - Jordi Chin - is in the same city as her, trouble starts to follow as Fixers and other people come after her. She soon has no choice but to team up with a hacker group - DedSec - to find out why people are after her.-I only own Madison Cooke, Jakayla Baker, and Dawn Rivera. The other characters belong to Ubisoft.--Game Spoiler Warning: will not follow the game but some scenes will be similar to scenes from the game. This includes the first game as some stuff from that game will be included. If you're planning on playing both games, don't read so you won't be spoiled!-





	1. Chapter 1

Madison sits at her work desk, looking through pictures she had taken earlier. Madison works as a graphic designer and a freelance photographer. She would go around San Francisco and take pictures of the people and buildings, some times nature, and include some of the pictures in her work.

Madison wasn’t born and raised in San Francisco; she was born in Chicago and grew up there for 21 years. Her mother was from Chicago while her father was from Ireland, who had moved to Chicago to get away from his home.

Madison loved her parents, but it didn’t last long.

When she was 7, her parents were in a car crash and had died at the scene. She was then put in an orphanage, due to having no living family in Chicago and having no record of family in Ireland. She stayed in the orphanage for a year until a man name Aiden Pearce adopted her and she was able to have a happy family. And in 2013, she moved to San Francisco and still keeps in touch with her adopted father.

When she use to live in Chicago, people have said that she looks like her adopted father, believing that she is his actual daughter; her brown hair and green eyes matching her adopted father and her skin being slightly tan, due to being out in the sun. She has a nose ring, which she doesn’t wear to work, and both her ears have two piercing.

Madison pulled herself out of her thoughts when she spots something in a picture. She zooms into the picture and let out a quiet gasp. Jordi Chin, a Fixer from Chicago, was standing in front of a building. Wondering why Jordi is in San Francisco, she saves the picture to her phone and quickly clicks away when Jakayla, her friend at work, comes to her desk.

Jakayla Baker is caring and protective to her friends, as well as being creative in her work and expressing herself. Her hair has an ombre effect of pink and blue – which works with her fair skin – and her eyes a hazel color. Her right ear has three piercing but she doesn’t have two of the piercing in when she’s working.

“Hey, ready to go to lunch?”

Madison nods her head. She stands up, fixing her green dress and the belt, and then grab her bucket bag before following Jakayla out of the office space.

“Where are we’re going for lunch?” Madison asked after they got off the elevator.

“There’s a burger place about two blocks from here,” Jakayla replies as they exit the building. “Dawn and I go there when we want a burger.”

Gabriella Rivera, or Dawn as she likes to go as, is Jakayla’s girlfriend for 5, going on 6 years in July, and works as a car mechanic. For their 4 year anniversary, Dawn found a ’67 Chevrolet Impala and fixed the car. Jakayla named her car “Baby” after Dean’s car in Supernatural; she’s a fan of the show and always wanted the same car as his.

“Did you get any good pictures for the website?” Jakayla asks as they walk down the sidewalks.

Madison nods her head. “I’ll let you see them when we return to the office after lunch. I got different pictures of the buildings, the people, and some scenario. Hopefully they’re good for the website.”

“Please, Mad. Your pictures are always good.”

Madison silently laughs at the statement. Before she could reply, a familiar male’s voice causes her to freeze in her spot.

“Excuse me. Do you know where I can find Silicon Valley?”

Madison didn’t have to look at the man to see what he looks like; just hearing his voice brought back memories from her past.

Jordi Chin.

Thinking back to the picture she found him in, she pretends to be on her phone with her hair hiding her face, hoping he didn’t see her, as Jakayla gives him directions. She doesn’t want Jordi to know that she lives there now, in case he’s working for Blume or working on a contract.

After Jakayla finish giving Jordi directions, he thanked her then walked off.

“Mad, why did you hide your face?” Jakayla asks Madison once both of them start walking again. “You’re usually not like that.”

“He…um…reminds me of someone from my past,” Madison replies in a voice that sounds like she didn’t want to talk about it. She doesn’t like to talk about her past; keeping what happened a secret that only a few people know about.

Jakayla didn’t ask anything, not wanting to pressure Madison to tell her everything. Instead, Jakayla starts talking about having a girls’ night and begin listing off things they can do.

“We can go to the spa or see a movie. Oh! Maybe we can go shopping! It’s always fun to go into stores and try on different outfits.”

“We can go to a club,” Madison suggests. “We haven’t been to a club in a long time. Plus, we can shop for a club outfit.”

“That’s a good idea! And maybe, Dawn and I can find a decent guy for you.” Jakayla nudge Madison’s side, who simple rolled her eyes.

“I don’t want a guy at the moment,” Madison whispered as they enter the burger place.

“Well, we don’t want you to be alone for the rest of your life.”

“I’ll be fine.” Madison looks over the menu, deciding on what to get.

Once deciding on what to get, Madison puts in her order – a cheese hamburger with no onions and a side of fries – then paid for it and wait for Jakayla as she orders her hamburger. While Madison and Jakayla wait for their order, Jakayla sends a message to Dawn, telling her about having a girls’ night out, and Madison took the time to send the picture of Jordi to her adopted father, hoping either he or T-Bone can figure out why Jordi is here.

“When will we have the girls’ night out?” Jakayla asks after we got our food and sat at a booth.

“Well, all of us are off tomorrow so we can have it tomorrow night. I was planning on getting up early so I can go around and get some more pictures. I can meet you and Dawn at a store once I’m done.”

Jakayla nods her head in agreement. “That’s a good idea. Who knows when all of us will have a day off at the same time?”

Madison nods her head as she takes a bit of her hamburger. “Even if we request a day off on the same day, we could be called in, in case our boss needs either one of us or Dawn’s boss needing her.”

“So we might as well take the day where we’re all free than request a day off,” Jakayla said, putting a fry in her mouth.

For the rest of their lunch break, they talk about which store to go to for club outfits and which club to go to. Jakayla made her car the main vehicle they’ll take to the club so Madison can take her car and meet with Jakayla and Dawn at the shop after she’s done taking pictures then follow them to their house, where she can park her car in their garage.

After they’re done, they threw away their garbage and head back to the office. Jakayla talked about how she’s excited about tomorrow night while Madison’s mind is on Jordi, hoping he didn’t notice her or she’s going to have to be on the look out for other Fixers.


	2. Chapter 2

Madison snaps a picture of the sea lions at Fisherman’s Wharf. Smiling, she checks the picture to make sure it came out the way she wants it.

It’s the next day and Madison hasn’t heard from her adopted father. When she woke up that morning, she expected a response from him but didn’t. Thinking he could be doing something, she decides to start her morning by taking a shower, knowing he’ll respond back as soon as he can.

After she had taken her morning shower, she got dressed in a black and white striped shirt, paired with some dark blue skinny jeans, a moss green draped cardigan, and a pair of black boots. She then feed Ghost – her 2 year old white Alaskan Klee Kai who she named after Jon Snow’s direwolf in Game of Thrones – and made sure everything is out so her neighbor, who will be checking up on Ghost while Madison is out for the night, doesn’t have to go looking for anything.

After she was done, she grabbed her camera and her keys. She then head to Fisherman’s Wharf to take pictures of the people, both native and tourists, and the different scenery.

Madison takes a quick peak at her phone, checking to see if she didn’t miss a text or a call. Still nothing, she thought to herself, putting her phone back in the cardigan’s pocket and continues to take pictures.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, sitting on a store’s roof, two males are looking at their phones, profiling people from a distance. Both males are members of a hacker group call DedSec, whose belief is technology should not be used to control people. They actively fight against the San Francisco CTOS system by spamming messages about themselves and their cause, gathering followers through their app that will lend their computers’ processing power to their operations.

One of the males, wearing a spiked mask and goggles with an LED display that shows different emotes and various eye expressions, notice a female’s profile and senses something is off about her profile.

“Hey Marcus,” the masked male spoke to his friend, his voice sounding robotic.

“What is it, Wrench?” Marcus asked.

“Does something seem…off on this profile?” Wrench shows Marcus his phone.

 **Cooke, Madison**  
**Only child**  
**Age: 24**  
**Occupation: Graphic Designer/Freelance Photographer**  
**Income: $70,000**

“I’m not sure. It looks like a normal profile.”

Wrench pulls his phone back and looks at the profile. He then pulls his computer out of his bag and places it onto his lap. He begins to hack into Madison’s phone, to see if he could find anything about her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Madison quickly pulls her phone out when she felt it vibrating. She took one look at the Caller ID and quickly answers it, letting her camera hang against her hip as the strap lies diagonal across her body.

“So you saw my message, dad?”

“Yeah, saw it last night but I was busy with something that I couldn’t respond back. Did he notice you?”

“I figured you were busy and would respond back. As for your question, not when the picture was taken and not when I saw him later on yesterday.” Madison could sense her father wanting her to explain more. She paused for a second before continuing. “He had approached me and my friend when we went to get lunch yesterday. He asked for directions but I hid my face from him.”

She heard her father let out a sigh. “Make sure he doesn’t know you live there. After what happened three years ago, Jordi and I haven’t been on good terms so I’m not sure why he’s there.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wrench receives a notice when Madison got a call from a man name Brandon Cooke. His guess: her father. He plugs earphones into his laptop and brings up the audio on his laptop as he puts one earbud in his ear.

Marcus, looking at what Wrench had pulled up, took the other earbud and put it in his ear, listening on the phone conversation as well.

When the male’s voice mentioned something that happened 3 years ago, it interested both Wrench and Marcus. Marcus pulls his laptop out of his bag and began tracking the phone call, making it where he can’t be detected.

“Find anything?” Wrench asked.

Marcus shook his head. “The call is being made from somewhere in Chicago but I can’t detect where.” Marcus types away at his laptop while continuing to listen in on the phone conversation. “Whoever is making the call must be hiding somewhere that I can’t detect or they must be really good at hiding their signal.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Dad, how is everything there?” Madison asks, knowing her adopted father got back into the action after Raymond Kenney – or T-Bone as he likes to go by – recruited him to fight against Blume, about a month after her father had stopped Damien.

“Everything is fine here. You don’t have to worry.”

Madison smiled. “I’m still going to worry, dad. I’m in a different state than you. Plus…I miss you.”

“I miss you too. If I was more careful when dealing with Damien, you’ll be here, home where you belong, and not have to worry about looking over your shoulder for Fixers.”

“Don’t forget about Aunt Nicole and Jackson.” Madison heard her father chuckle.

“Of course, can’t forget them.”

Madison smiled, slowly missing her home and her family. The last time she saw her aunt and cousin was at Jackson’s birthday party, before her aunt was kidnapped. After her father saved her aunt, she didn’t get a chance to see them or say goodbye – due to her hiding at the Bunker – before they too went into hiding.

“Hey man,” a new voice said, making Madison smile when she knew the voice belongs to T-Bone.

Because T-Bone had saved her and helped her father deal with Damien and Defalt, she considers him as an uncle. The first time Madison met T-Bone, she was scared he was going to do something to her but he took her in and hid her at his junkyard, away from Damien and his men until he started helping her father. After her father found out where she was at, he took her to the Bunker where she could be safer before he continued helping T-Bone.

Since T-Bone came to the Bunker, they got close and she started seeing him as an uncle as he started seeing her as a niece. While her father was busy, he would show her ways to protect herself, with melee weapons and guns; though she prefers to be able to knock someone out rather than kill them, unless it was necessary. He even tried to teach her some hacking, but she couldn’t quite catch it.

After defeating Damien, her father suggested that she go into hiding. She refused, saying she didn’t want to leave Chicago, but she finally took her father’s suggestion after both of them came to an agreement: she’ll move somewhere else if she can stay in contact with him and T-Bone, in case she needs help or start missing her home. When they settled on the agreement, she got T-Bone to erase most of her information before she went into hiding.

“There’s someone tracking the call. We’re gonna have to cut the call short.”

Hearing T-Bone say that crushed Madison; she was hoping to talk more to both of them but due to the tracking, the call will have to be cut short to stop the person.

“We’ll talk some more another day. For now, leave where you’re at but be on the look out for anyone suspicious.”

“Okay and be safe, the both of you.”

“We will. I love you.”

“I love you too, dad.” With that, Madison hung up the call and began leaving the area, keeping an eye on the people around her while not noticing the two people who’s watching her from the rooftop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the call was over, Wrench and Marcus watch Madison leave the area. After she finished her phone call, they became more interested on who she is and what she could possibly be hiding.

“Okay. I had a feeling something was off on her.” Wrench mentions. “And now, I’m curious to know what she’s hiding.”

“Man, you and me both. We’ll gonna have to keep an eye on her and see if we can find anything else. Perhaps Josh could help us too.”

Wrench nods his head at the suggestion of getting help from Josh, another DedSec member who is a genius hacker.

“Well, let’s head back to the hideout,” Marcus suggests, closing his laptop and putting it back into his bag.

Before Wrench could put his laptop up, he got a message pop up, showing a text message that Madison sent to someone name Jakayla. “Hey, seems like our Mystery Girl is spending some time tonight with her friends.” Marcus looks at Wrench. “Wanna do some more spying on her?”

Marcus chuckled at the request then nods his head.


	3. Chapter 3

“Madi, you look so sexy in that outfit!” Dawn yelled over the club music.

After Madison left Fisherman’s Wharf, she had met up with Dawn and Jakayla at a store so they could buy club outfits, which they had fun picking out. Once they got their outfits, they picked up some pizzas for lunch and went to Dawn and Jakayla’s home to relax for a while until it got to a good time to get ready. Once it was time, they were ready and took Jakayla’s car, making it the designated car.

Madison looks down at her outfit: a royal blue bralet with a zip detail on the front, black rip shorts, a black vest, and black boots. For jewelry, she’s wearing a silver triangle necklace, parallel bars ring, simple earrings for both her double pierced ears, and a silver nose ring for her right nostril. Her hair is pulled up into a high ponytail, letting some hair be free to help frame her face, and a Smokey eye. Despite the outfit being a bit revealing, she was comfy and that’s all she cares about.

She then looks at her two best friends’ outfits.

Jakayla’s outfit matches her ombre hair: a sky blue flowy spaghetti top with a pair of pink shorts and 2” white heels. Her hair wavy and her eye makeup being a light blue eye shadow that helps bring out her hazel eyes and simple thin black eyeliner.

Dawn’s outfit was simple but perfect for her: white crop top and black skinny jeans to help show off her curves and black boots. Her hair and makeup being simple as well; her shoulder length hair straight and a simple black cat eyeliner.

“Please, the both of you look sexier than me,” Madison complimented her friends.

Jakayla chuckled then wraps an arm around Dawn’s shoulder. “You know I have to be sexy for this one almost all the time.” She then points to her shoes. “And despite my hatred towards heels, this is the one time I will wear them, especially two inch ones, so I can be close to her height.” Without heels, Jakayla stood at 5’4”, 3 inches shorter than Dawn and an inch shorter than Madison.

Dawn rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to be sexy all the time. It’s not like anyone is going to take me away from you.”

“And if they did, I’ll come after them with Baby!”

Both Dawn and Madison laughed at Jakayla’s proclamation. “I swear, you two are the cutest couple I know,” Madison voice to her friends.

“I think we’re the only couple you know,” Jakayla spoke after finishing off her drink. “Now, time to put the plan into action.” Jakayla looks at Dawn, who nods her head.

Madison, confused, asks: “What plan?”

“The plan to find you a decent guy!” Jakayla exclaimed.

Madison slapped her forehead. “I don’t need a guy. I’m perfectly fine on my own.”

“When was the last time you had a boyfriend?” Dawn asks.

Madison silently chuckled to herself. When was the last time she had a boyfriend? That was a ridiculous question to ask her. Before coming to San Francisco, she never dated anyone in high school nor in college. It’s not like her father was being overprotective over his only daughter, not allowing her to date until a certain age or when she moves out. It was her choice not to date, always thinking it was sort of a waste of time and knowing the relationship will only end in heartbreak in some way.

Not wanting to leave her friend hanging, Madison shrugged her shoulders as her answer.

“And see, this is why you need a boyfriend. So you can be happy too and not be forever alone,” Dawn spoke as Jakayla began looking around the club, trying her best to find any eligible men through the crazy, flashing lights.

“But what if I’m a lesbian like you two and I haven’t told anyone yet?”

Jakayla snickered. “I know for sure you’re not a lesbian.”

“And how do you know that?” Madison asks.

Jakayla looks at Madison and without missing a beat, says: “I’ve seen how you look at Kit Harington in Game of Thrones and Norman Reedus in The Walking Dead.”

“Don’t forget Colin O’Donoghue from Once Upon A Time,” Dawn included. Jakayla nods her head in agreement.

In defeat, Madison slightly raises her hands. She didn’t want to pretend to be a lesbian but she doesn’t want to get a boyfriend, in fear that either her past will come back around or if he works for Blume and figures out whom she is. “Okay, I get it but I still don’t need to have a boyfriend.”

Ignoring her friend, Jakayla continue to look around the club until her eyes landed on a male from across the room. “Ooo! I see a guy over there.”

Being sneaky, Madison looks in the direction that Jakayla is slightly pointing at and she saw two men sitting in a corner. The man Jakayla is pointing towards is wearing a mask and goggles, which lit up with different symbols to show expressions as the two males talk. And despite the flashing lights hardly touching the corner, Madison could tell he has an affinity for spikes.

“I’m not sure.” Madison looks back to her friends. “He’s wearing a mask.”

“So?” Jakayla asks.

“So what if he’s an old guy? Or a sixteen year old who got his older brother or sister to get him in? I don’t want people to see me as a gold digger or a cougar.”

“Oooooor-” Jakayla leans in closer towards Madison, “-he might be extremely hot under that mask and perfect for you so no one will have to call you any names.”

Madison pokes her friend’s forehead. “You know its weird hearing you say ‘extremely hot’ when it’s coming to guys.” 

Jakayla was quiet for a bit before giggling. “It really is but I only want the best looking guy for you.”

“You know I don’t really care for looks.”

“Say that to Kit Harington, Norman Reedus, and Colin O’Donoghue,” Dawn whispers.

Madison sticks her tongue at Dawn as she starts to laugh. “Anyways, can we not do this? Please? This is supposed to be a girls’ night out. Not “let’s get Madison a boyfriend” night. Besides, I’m happy with being single and will get a boyfriend when I’m ready.”

Jakayla and Dawn nod their head.

“And when you’re ready, we’ll help make sure the guy is right for you,” Jakayla says as she finishes off what seems to be her fourth or fifth drink. Dawn, being the caring girlfriend she is, tells Jakayla to slow down on the drinks.

Madison laughs as Jakayla tells Dawn that she’s fine – but she could easily tell that her friend is slowly becoming intoxicated – when she felt eyes on her. Looking behind her, she spots the masked man look away from her. She didn’t know what to think as she turns her attention back to her friends, once again feeling his eyes on her. She had a feeling about the masked man but she wasn’t sure if it’s a good feeling or a bad one.

Not wanting to worry anymore, she took a sip of her drink.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When it was getting late, Madison helps Dawn with an intoxicated Jakayla, who is babbling about how she didn’t mean to get drunk. Dawn reassures her that it’s okay and she’ll regret it even more in the morning.

Madison saw Jakayla reach her hand into her purse. Knowing what Jakayla is going to grab, Madison quickly grabs her purse away from her, earning a pout from Jakayla. Madison shook her head at her intoxicated friend as she grabs the car keys. Once they get to the vehicle, Madison will hand them over to Dawn, being the only person who didn’t drink any alcohol, but she is currently busy with trying to keep her drunken girlfriend standing to keep a hold of the keys. Madison only had a few drinks but not enough to be intoxicated; but still, she didn’t trust herself behind the wheel with her two best friends in the vehicle.

“I’m so…so-sorry…for…this,” Jakayla spoke, trying her best to speak.

“It’s okay.” Madison places a consoling hand on Jakayla’s shoulder. “Just be glad that we’re off tomorrow as well. You can deal with your hangover all day.”

Jakayla drunkenly laughs as they cross the street.

Madison pushes the unlock button and Jakayla’s car lights flash. “Can you get her into the car?” Madison asks Dawn as she opens the backseats door.

“Yeah. Can you start the car as I get her settle in?” Dawn slowly began to place Jakayla in the backseat.

Madison nods her head and walk around the front to get to the driver’s seat.

“Excuse me.” Madison turns around and sees two men standing a few feet from her. “Are you Rosalyn Pearce?”

Madison shakes her head, a bit frighten that these men knew that name.

One of the men walks closer to her, holding up a piece of paper as he looks back and forth between her and the paper. He then looks at the other guy, who nods his head. Looking back at Madison, the man says: “You’re gonna have to come with us.”

Madison shakes her head. “I’m not going with you. You must have me confused for some other girl.”

The man walks over to her and grabs her upper arm. “You’re coming with us.”

Madison makes her hand into a fist and punches the man in the face. He lets go of Madison, grabbing his face. “You bitch!” He grabs her again and forces her hands behind her back.

This made Madison struggle. “Dawn!”

Dawn came around and saw what was happening then she went to attack the man but the other one grabs her and holds her against a building’s wall.

“Let us go!” Madison screams.

Before they knew it, the lights around them went off and the sound of footsteps coming closer to them. Madison heard one of the men hit the ground as the one still holding her backs up, keeping a hold on her. It wasn’t long before Madison felt the man’s grip finally disappear but another hand grabbing her hand. She knew it wasn’t Dawn’s hand since the grip felt like a man’s.

“I’m sure no Fixers will be after them but get them someplace safe,” a robotic voice spoke. “I’ll make sure no Fixers follow her.”

“Just be safe, man,” a different man’s voice spoke through the darkness.

Madison felt herself being pulled away from her friends by the man with a robotic voice. She knew the two men who saved her and Dawn are hackers since they used what seem to be the same hack that her father would use back home to escape from gang members or the police.

When they turned a corner, Madison finally spoke or more like demanded. “Let me go!” Madison tries to get the man the release her hand.

“Sorry but unless you want to go with those Fixers, I can help you.”

“I can handle them! I know how to protect myself!” Madison exclaimed at him as she continues to get the man to release her, only to cause him to come to an abrupt stop. She crashes into him but he kept both of them on their feet. Madison places her hands on his chest so she could keep her balance.

“Even if you know how to protect yourself, more will come. When that happens, you won’t be able to protect yourself or your friends!”

Glaring at the man, Madison asks “Who are you?”

As if on cue, the lights came back on, making Madison close her eyes for a second to readjust to the light. When she opens her eyes, Madison saw the same masked man from the club, the one who was staring at her. Knowing that he can hack and was watching her in the club made her suspicious on him.

“Damn it.” Madison watches as the goggles display an angry look. “We need to hurry before more Fixers appear.” The masked man pulls Madison towards his bike.

“Wait.” Madison stops walking, which caused the mask man to look at her. Not wanting to go with him, Madison tries to think of an excuse. “I’m not sure why you’re helping me. Those men are just confused.”

The masked man steps closer to Madison and places his free hand on her shoulder. “Listen. For whatever reason, you have Fixers after you and they don’t get confused when they’re after someone. If Fixers are after you, then there’s a reason why and we have to get away before more come.”

Madison stays quiet for a bit. She knows Fixers won’t stop until they get the person they’re after. This isn’t her first time dealing with Fixers. Madison releases a sigh then whispers, “Fine.” She senses the masked man smirking under his mask. The man lets go of her shoulder and hand then he got on the bike, starting it up. Madison walks over and sits behind him. She then carefully wraps her arms around his waist, trying not to get stabbed by the spikes on his vest.

As if the man remembered something, he turns his head and looks at Madison. “Oh. Just to warn you, I like to go fast.”

Madison didn’t have enough time to respond when the man zooms down the street. The force almost caused her to fall off the bike, but she manages to stay on the bike as she tightens her grip around the man’s waist, ignoring the spikes.

“Shit.”

Madison looks at the man. “What?”

“We’re being followed. There’s a van behind us.”

Madison tries her best to look behind them and just like he said, she saw a van following them. Madison then looks forward and begins to look around, trying to find a way to lose the van. But with the man going fast, it was difficult to see around her as street lights and buildings zoom past them in a blur.

An idea came to Madison. “Hey! Can you go down an alleyway where the van can’t follow us?”

“Why?”

“Just trust me. If I have to trust you, trust me as well.”

The man didn’t say anything else and slowed the bike down then turned into an alleyway that could only. As the man continues to drive, Madison looks behind her and see the van had stopped, watching what they’re going to do next.

“What now?” the man asked.

Madison looks in front of her and see two ways to go. “Go to the left but don’t go all the way down, just enough where they can’t see us and they’ll try to find any exits to cut us off at. When they’re out of sight, we’ll be able to get away without them following us anymore.”

The man didn’t question Madison’s idea and did what she said, turning left and going down the alleyway, only to stop halfway so the van didn’t see them. The alleyway went down further with another turn so they’re well hidden. They then sat in silence, listening for the van. Madison was praying that her idea works, fearing what would happen if it didn’t.

When a few minutes passed and they no longer heard can hear the van, Madison got off of the bike and walks over to the corner that the masked man took, peaking around to see the van gone. “We’re clear.” Madison looks back at the man. He nods his head and got off his bike then begins to back up so they can exit the alleyway.

“How did you come up with that idea?” the man asks.

“I’ve had a few experiences in the past.” Madison wraps her arms around her waist. “Who…who are you? And where did the other guy take my friends?”

“You can call me Wrench.” His goggles displaying a “^ ^” expression.

Wrench? What kind of name is it? Madison thought.

“My friend took your friends where they could be safe, so probably their house.”

Madison nods her head as her and Wrench walk out of the alleyway and got back on the bike. Madison wanted to ask more questions, like why he was watching her in the club, but she wanted to get back to her two best friends’ home and relax.

As Wrench drives, Madison directs him to her friends’ house while being careful to not run into the van again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wrench stops the bike in front of a two story house. Madison gets off the bike and begins to walk towards the house before stopping and turning around.

“Thank you…for um…saving me from those Fixers.”

Wrench’s goggles lit up, showing a “^ ^” expression, as he says: “you’re welcome. Can’t have damn Fixers mess with a cute girl.”

Madison looked away, hiding her blush. “Well, I appreciate it.” Wrench continues to give her the “^ ^” expression before driving down the road and disappearing into the darkness. Madison starts to walk up the stairs and enter the house, only to be attacked in a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Dawn silently exclaimed. “When that man brought me and Jakayla here, Jakayla passed out on the couch and I was slowly getting worried. I thought I would have to call the cops!”

Smiling, Madison returned the hug. “I’m fine. Sorry that I had you worried.”

“Well, as long as you’re fine, I can stop worrying.” Dawn broke the hug and walk over to the staircase. “If you want, you can stay in the guest room and you can also borrow some pajamas.”

Madison smiles then began to follow Dawn upstairs. “Thanks.”


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, Madison lies in bed, not wanting to get out, and recollects her thoughts from last night. All night, her mind was wrapped around two things: the two Fixers and the masked man name Wrench. She was beginning to worry that whoever sent the Fixers know who she is and that means, she’s going to have to be more careful from now on. And with the masked man, she wanted to ask him about why he was watching her in the club last night. But she didn’t ask, being more concerned about the Fixers.

Madison was pull out of her thoughts when she hears knocking on the bedroom door. Sitting up, she calls out. “I’m up.” She watches as Jakayla walks in, her hair in a messy bun and dressed in sweats. “How are you feeling?” Madison asks Jakayla as she sits at the end of the bed.

“Like death.” Jakayla places a hand against her forehead. “I’m never drinking again.”

Madison silently laughs at her hung-over friend. “You say that and yet, you end up drinking. Did you drink any water?”

Jakayla nods her head. “Dawn made sure I drank some water before she left for work.”

Madison nods her head. “That’s good. Don’t want you dying from a hangover anymore.”

Jakayla smiles at Madison. “I don’t either. Anyways, you can stay until you’re ready to go home.”

“I do want to stay and make sure you’ll live, but I need to check on Ghost. Even though my neighbor was kind enough to check on him during the night, they couldn’t check on him during the day.”

“I understand. Ghost is such a mama’s boy.” Madison chuckles at Jakayla’s statement. “And if you want, so you don’t have to wear your club outfit home, you can borrow the pajamas and return them another day.”

Madison looks down at the shorts and large shirt that she slept in, considering she’ll be more comfortable driving in than her club outfit. “I’ll wash them before I return them.” Madison gets up from the bed and places a hand on Jakayla’s shoulder. “Now, go get some more rest. We don’t have to work until tomorrow. Also, don’t hesitate to text me if you need anything and I’ll come back before you can say “carry on wayward son”.”

Jakayla chuckles as she gets off the bed. “Then you better be fast if I text you.” After Jakayla walks out of the room, Madison grabs the boots she wore with her club outfit and slips them on. She then stands up and begin to grab everything – the rest of her club outfit, yesterday’s clothes, her camera bag, and her car keys – and walk out of the room. Before leaving the house, she checks on her friend one more time.

Once she knows her friend will be okay, Madison leaves the house then walks to her car, unlocking it as she walks. She opens the driver side and gets in, throwing the clothes into the backseats and setting her camera bag in the passenger sit. After shutting the door and buckling in, she starts the car and begins to drive home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wrench and Marcus stands with two more DedSec members at the DedSec hideout. They have another member in their group but he’s at work so they figure they will tell him once he gets here.

“What do you want to tell us?” a woman asks. She’s wearing a grey oversized sweater with patches on the back representing a skull, which shows her orange bra and reads “Tales of The Future Horrific Web of Doom!”, jean shorts, and a large purple head scarf around her neck. Her socks are black and white, with DedSec skulls on them and being opposite color for the other one, that stretch up to her knees. She has flashy blue and green eyeshadow that goes along with her corn rows, which flows into a ponytail, and her nose pierced through her Septum.

“Last night, two Fixers asked a girl if she was ‘Rosalyn Pearce’ when her name’s Madison Cooke,” Wrench told the two people.

“What if the Fixers confused her with someone else?” the woman asks.

“And how are you sure her name is Madison?” a male asks. He’s usually seen wearing a black beanie, green hoodie, white button-up shirt and jeans with green-yellow-ish sneakers and a yellow key around his neck. He has short black hair and eyebrows with very little stubble on his face.

“You know Fixers don’t get confused, Sitara,” Wrench answers the woman’s question.

“Josh, as for how we know her name, Wrench profiled her the other day,” Marcus answers the other man’s question.

“Well…do you know anything else on Madison?” Josh asks. He grabs his laptop and places it on the table then sits down. He begins to hack into Chicago’s servers.

“She’s from Chicago so you can probably start there,” Marcus states.

“How do you know she’s from Chicago?” Sitara asks as Josh looks through Chicago database.

“She got a phone call from her dad in Chicago yesterday.”

“Well, she is from Chicago,” Josh states, looking at Madison’s information. “This is weird.”

“What’s weird?” Sitara asks.

“Usually, when you look someone up, there’s a ton of information on the person, like where they went to school, what they did during their life, medical reports, and so on. But for Madison, I only see her name, when and where she was born, who her parents are, and her school years. There’s no other information about her.”

“So someone must’ve gotten into the system and deleted information on her,” Wrench suggests, having his goggles show “? ?”.

“Someone must have,” Marcus says then asks, “but who and why?”

Wrench feels his phone vibrate. He brings it out and sees a notification. “Hey guys,” Wrench starts to get everyone attention, “she’s making a phone call right now.”

“Did you bug her phone?” Sitara asks.

“She had received a call yesterday that got both Marcus and me interested in her.” Wrench brings up the audio so everyone can hear it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once Madison was home, she checks on Ghost, who was happy to see her again. Before doing anything else, she takes him to her backyard and lets him do his business. She then gives him some food and water before heading upstairs. She takes a quick, cold shower then dresses in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top once she was out. She walks to her laundry room and puts her friend’s pajamas in the washer so she can return them tomorrow.

She then walks downstairs and sits down on her couch, bringing up her father’s number. She begins to hope that whoever was tracking the call yesterday wasn’t going to try it again today. Ghost jumps onto the couch and sits next to her, laying his head on her lap. Smiling, she starts petting him then places her phone against her ear and waits for her father to answer, who picked up immediately.

Her father’s concern voice comes through the receiver, asking: “Rose, is everything okay?”

Madison bites her bottom lip before saying: “Not really.”

“What’s wrong?”

Madison lets out a sigh. “Last night, I went out with my friends to a club. When we were at my friend’s car, two Fixers showed up and asked if I was ‘Rosalyn Pearce’.”

“What did you tell them?”

“That I wasn’t her.” Madison pauses for a second before continuing. “I think Jordi might be connected.” She hates pinning something on someone else, even if they did or didn’t do anything. But when it comes to Jordi, she knows how he is, despite only meeting him a couple times when living in Chicago and only learning most of her knowledge on him from her father. But since she saw him the other day and never had Fixers come after her until last night, she couldn’t pass the thought that he might be behind the Fixers.

“There’s no proof that he’s the one sending those Fixers after you, despite him being one.”

Madison lets out a small sigh. “You’re right.” But she stills has a feeling about Jordi and why he’s in San Francisco. “Anyways, I didn’t get a chance to ask this yesterday but how’s T-Bone? He hasn’t caused too much trouble lately, has he?”

Her father laughs when she asked about T-Bone. “You know T-Bone, he’s always causing trouble.”

“You know, for damn well, that half the trouble I cause is because of Blume getting on my ass,” T-Bone spoke in the background. “Who’re you talking to?”

“Who do you think? My daughter.”

Madison could hear T-Bone rush over to her father. “Let me talk to her!”

Madison laughs. That’s when she knew how much she misses talking to T-Bone, hearing him talk about working at Blume Corporation and his guilt for causing 11 people to die when he caused the 2003 Northeast Blackout.

“Let me put the phone on speaker first.” Madison hears T-Bone chuckle as her father put the phone on speaker. “There. Now you can stop fighting me for the phone.”

“Rose! How are you? Anyone causing you trouble? Cause if anyone is, I’ll get on the first flight to San Francisco to beat the shit out of them!”

“Only two Fixers,” Madison answers the second question. “Other than that, no one has caused me any trouble.”

“Fixers? Did Jordi send them?” T-Bone asks.

Madison wasn’t sure if the question was for her or her father, but she answers with: “I don’t know but he may or may not be connected.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask this: why would Fixers be after you, Rose?” her father asks.

Madison didn’t answer but T-Bone suggests: “maybe Blume figured out where she is. If they did, they probably want to get her so they can finally capture you, Aiden.”

“I’m not sure,” Madison voices. “If that was the case, if Blume knows where I am, so would DedSec. So far, I haven’t been approached by a DedSec member.”

“Besides the two Fixers, you haven’t had other people come up to you since seeing Jordi?” her father asks.

“Only two guys. They stopped the Fixers.”

“Well, if anyone else confronts you, be careful,” her father warns her. “Anyone could be a Blume affiliate or a DedSec member.”

“You know I will. I’ve been hiding for three years without Blume or a DedSec member finding me.”

“And it’s all thanks to me!” T-Bone exclaims.

Madison lets out a quiet laugh. “I appreciate what you did, T-Bone or should I say Kenney, and I’m sure my dad is too.”

“You know not to speak that!” T-Bone exclaims once more. She starts laughing as she hears her father chuckle a bit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone goes quiet to listen to the phone conversation, listening to Madison tell her father about what happened last night and how a man name Jordi might be behind the Fixers. They became more interested in the conversation when another voice enters the conversation.

“You don’t think that’s really the Raymond Kenney she was talking to?” Marcus asks when Madison finishes her call.

“The other person must be Aiden Pearce, the Chicago vigilante, then,” Josh simply says.

Sitara places a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Josh, can you see if there’s anyone related to Aiden Pearce? There must be a connection somewhere for Madison to know Aiden Pearce and Raymond Kenney.”

Josh begins searching for anyone related to Aiden Pearce. It didn’t take him long to find information on Aiden Pearce. “Let’s see…he has a sister, a nephew, and an adopted daughter,” Josh began to list off Aiden’s family members.

“Aiden did say “daughter” when talking to Madison,” Sitara speaks. “But why would he say that to Madison?”

“What’s his adopted daughter’s name?” Marcus asks, thinking he figured out how Madison is connected.

“Rosalyn Pearce,” Josh answers.

“That’s the name the Fixers used!” Wrench exclaims.

“Do you know where she is?” Marcus asks.

“According to this, all three of them disappeared in 2013,” Josh answers.

“Disappeared?” Wrench asked, having “? ?” appear on his goggles. “As in ‘someone got rid of them’ disappeared or ‘they went into hiding’ disappeared?”

“I think ‘they went into hiding’ disappeared,” Marcus tells him.

Josh looks up Aiden’s adopted daughter, wanting to see if there’s a picture off her. “Do you have a picture of Madison?” Josh asks after finding a picture of Rosalyn.

Wrench brings his phone out and looks through his photos, pulling up a picture of Madison he took at the club yesterday. Despite all the flashing lights in the club, he was able to get a decent looking picture of her. “Here, I took this yesterday.”

Josh grabs Wrench’s phone and places it next to Rosalyn’s picture, comparing them. “Uh…guys…you sure she’s not Rosalyn Pearce?” Josh asks, looking at Wrench and Marcus.

Marcus nods his head. “Yeah, her name came up as Madison Cooke when Wrench saw her profile.”

“Why do you ask?” Wrench asks.

“Comparing the two pictures,” Josh begins as he turns his laptop to face the others and keeping the phone up, “they look like the same person.”

Wrench, Marcus, and Sitara looks at both pictures, surprise at how the two people look the same.

“Since Rosalyn and Madison are the same people, why would she change her name?” Sitara asks.

“Maybe whatever happened three years ago caused her to change her name when she came here and it could explain why there’s hardly any information on her,” Josh voices. “And the only way we can know for sure is if -”

“If we confront her,” Marcus finishes Josh’s sentence. Marcus lets out a quiet sigh then look at Wrench. “Wrench and I will confront her tomorrow and see if she’ll say anything.” Wrench nods his head.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, Madison thought back to her phone conversation with her father and T-Bone while working on her project. She never realized how home sick she was until that call; missing her family and friends. She loves living in San Francisco but Chicago is her home and will always be her home; that’s where she grew up with her parents and with her adopted father.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she feels her phone vibrate from near her keyboard. She quickly grabs her phone off her desk and look at the message, seeing it’s from an unknown number. Thinking it was sent to a wrong number, she went to delete the message but stopped as her eyes wander to the message, reading it slowly.

**We know who you are. Meet in the parking garage after you’re done with work.**

Madison eyes widen as she begins to panic on the inside. Her mind wonders on who might have sent the message, thinking it’s someone from Blume. But if it is someone from Blume, she didn’t know how they could have found her since she’s always careful in public.

“You okay?”

Madison lightly jumps in her chair when she hears a voice, causing her phone to land in her lap. She looks over and sees Jakayla, who’s looking at her with a concerned look. Madison calms herself down before speaking. “Yeah, I’m okay.” She picks her phone up from her lap and keeps it in her hands.

“Okay,” Jakayla says, still feeling concerned for her friend. “I was worried and thought something bad might have happened.”

Madison shakes her head. “It’s nothing to worry about so sorry for making you worry.”

Jakayla smiles at her. “It’s fine. Besides, if something bad had happened, you can count on me and Dawn to be there for you.”

Madison smiles at Jakayla as she walks away and returns to her work. Madison knows that her friends will have her back in case she needs them and she will be there for them when they need her.

Madison looks back at her computer screen and puts her phone in her blazer’s pocket then tries her best to get back to work, despite her mind going back to the message.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After work, Madison walks through the parking garage, nervous on meeting the person who sent her the text. They didn’t say where to meet in the parking garage so she decides to wait at her car and hope this isn’t a trap.

She stops next to her car and starts to pull out her car keys when she feels a presence behind her. She turns around and sees a man standing a few feet away from her. He’s wearing a black sweater under a dark blue jacket with dark pants and light boots, as well as a small shoulder bag and a hat. She couldn’t see his face due to his lower face being covered by a bandana and his eyes cover by shades.

“Are you from Blume?” Madison asks. “Cause if you are, I won’t go with you so easily.”

The man shakes his head. “I’m from DedSec and I only want to talk.”

Madison looks at the man. “Is this a trap?”

The man shakes his head once more. “No, this isn’t a trap. Just want to talk.”

She leans against the side of her car. “Fine, we can talk.”

“I do want to ask this first: are you Rosalyn Pearce?”

Madison felt her breath get caught in her throat. _How could he possible know that?_ Madison thought to herself. _Wait, he’s with DedSec. They can find anything._

Before Madison could answer, they hear a vehicle approaching and stopping near them. Madison looks behind the man, who turns around to look behind him, and they see a different man walking towards them with a gun out. The DedSec guy pulls a gun out and fires at the other man, causing Madison to freak out.

“You shot a man!”

He looks at her. “It’s a teaser gun. He’ll be-” He was cut off when they hear another vehicle coming in. He pushes Madison down so they can hide behind her car then he pulls his phone out, calling someone. “I need some help here!” He brings his phone down then looks at Madison. “Get in your car.” He grabs her car keys out of her hands and unlocks the car.

Madison gets in the back seats as the DedSec guy gets in the driver’s seat and starts the car. He looks behind him, causing Madison to look as well.

She sees Wrench sitting on a bike and firing at oncoming people. She then feels her car jerk into motion, making her lay back down.

Due to how the man is driving, she wasn’t able to pay attention to what’s happening or where he’s going. So she dealt with not knowing and continues to stay down. It wasn’t until the man stops the car so she can sit up and see what’s happening. When she looks outside, the DedSec guy had parked her car in an alleyway.

Looking at the man, Madison asks: “Who are you?”

He turns around to look at her then removes his bandana and shades. It didn’t take Madison long to remember where she saw him.

 _It’s the same man from the other night_ , Madison thought to herself.

“Name’s Marcus Holloway. Now, if you don’t mind me asking this again: are you Rosalyn Pearce, Aiden Pearce’s daughter?”

Madison continues to look at Marcus, despite hearing the passenger side door opening and closing. She then looks in the passenger’s seat and see Wrench sitting there, looking towards her.

“So…are you Aiden Pearce’s daughter?” Marcus asks once more.

Madison looks at both men, both waiting patiently, then she crosses her arms and lean back, letting her back touch the seat. “Yes, I’m his daughter. How did you figure it out?” Both men look at each other, staying quiet as they try to figure out what to tell her. For Madison, it didn’t take her long until she had put everything together and figured out how they knew who she was. She places her hands on the edge of her car seats, clutching the cushions. “You were the ones tracking the call a few days ago!”

“When we saw your profile, you looked like you were hiding something and we wanted to know what,” Wrench defends both him and Marcus as Marcus starts the car and begin to move from the alleyway.

“So you decided to listen in on my phone call with my dad!”

“Listen, we’re sorry for listening in on your phone call,” Marcus spoke.

“Is that why you were at the club the other night? Watching me so you two can profile me and learn more?”

“At least we were there when those two Fixers tried to take you!” Wrench exclaims.

“And I thank you for saving me, but that doesn’t make me forgive you for trying to track the call back to my dad. Oh! Also, for your earlier comment, on how I was probably hiding something, I only want to say this.” Madison pushes her back off the seat and sit a bit closer to Wrench. “I have nothing to hide.” She didn’t want to say much about her past, not wanting to easily trust these people that had listen in on a phone call a few days ago.

“Then answer these questions: do you know why you have Fixers after you and why is there no information about you online?” Wrench asks.

 _They would try to look me up_ , Madison thought to herself. “I’m not telling you why you couldn’t find any of my information online. As for the Fixers,” Madison says as she shrugs her shoulders, “your guess is as good as mine.” Madison figure that would be a decent answer for them as she’s been trying to figure out why she had two Fixers after her. The two Fixers knew her true name but she couldn’t figure out how they knew it.

Madison continues to look at Wrench, who is smirking under his mask.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marcus parks in front of the Palace of Fine Arts and everyone gets out.

“If anything happens or if you want us to help protect you, DedSec will be there,” Marcus tells Madison, who has her arms crossed.

“How do I know that I can trust DedSec?” Madison asks.

“You just have to,” Marcus tells her, handing over her car keys.

Madison lets out a sigh. “Well seeing as you two were the one that was tracking one of my calls, I’m not sure I can fully trust the two of you.” She looks at both Wrench and Marcus. “So until I know I can trust you two, don’t expect me coming to DedSec for help real soon.” Madison then gets into her car and drives away.

Once Madison’s car was gone, Wrench looks at Marcus. “We’re still going to keep watch over her, right?” Wrench asks.

“Oh yeah,” Marcus answers, “may never know when more Fixers will be after her.”


	6. Chapter 6

Three years ago, in a Pawnee motel room, a young woman is bound to a chair, her hands tied behind her and her mouth gagged to prevent her from screaming for help.

Two days ago, she was kidnapped when visiting a friend by some men. She hates herself for being caught so easily but the one person she hates the most is her friend – ex-friend now – for helping her father’s old partner, Damien Brenks.

She had also learned that it wasn’t just her that Damien had taken; he had some of his men kidnap her aunt as well, though she was being held someplace else. They had almost abducted her cousin, but he had managed to get away, which she was happy for. She didn’t want her ten year old cousin to go through this.

The young woman moves her eyes to look at a camera that’s set up diagonal from her. Damien had mention that the camera will be use for him to keep an eye on her – despite having his men staying in the area at all times – and as well as recording everything that’s happening.

Looking away from the camera, she eyes a man as he sits in an arm chair with a gun nearby, in case the young woman manages to escape or if someone tries to rescue her.

All of a sudden, the room goes dark. The man silently curses as he gets up from the chair and walk towards the door. But the man stops when he hears gun shots outside. The man starts to slowly creep towards the door as the gun shots slowly die down. But the man didn’t get close to the door as the door is kicked open and there was one more gun shot.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Madison!”

Madison snaps out of her mind when she hears Jakayla’s voice.

It’s been a week since the Fixers tried to take her and a masked man name Wrench helped her. Since then, she’s been more cautious of her surroundings, keeping an eye out for any Fixers or DedSec members. She hasn’t notice any Fixers try to approach her or any DedSec members following her around or trying to contact her in anyway.

Madison looks at Jakayla, who has a worried look on her face. “Yeah?”

“Are you okay?” Jakayla asks, her voice sounding worried.

Madison nods her head, not wanting to worry her friend too much. But that didn’t work as Jakayla grabs Madison by her upper arm and starts pulling her out of the office space towards the now empty break room.

After shutting the door, Jakayla looks at Madison, her arms crossed. “Okay, I can tell something is wrong so…what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Madison tells her friend. “But I do want to ask something random. It’s nothing bad but I want to ask.” She knows she can always go to Jakayla when she needs help or needs advice. But at the moment, she doesn’t want to pull her friend into her Fixer problem. Madison knows she’s going to have to come up with a lie to get some advice to keep her friend safe.

Jakayla nods her head, agreeing to help.

Madison leans against the countertops, her hands intertwining in front of her. “Okay. Say if two people came up to you and tell you that they can help you when you have bad people after you, would you let them help you?”

Jakayla looks at her friend with a concern expression. “Well, first.” Jakayla leans closer. “Is this really a random question or do you really have people after you? Is it the same people from last week, the ones that were going to kidnap you?” After Jakayla was over her hangover last week, Dawn had updated her about what happened when we were leaving the club and Jakayla has been keeping an eye out for anyone suspicious, despite Madison telling her that she doesn’t have to.

Madison shakes her head, quickly coming up with something. “It’s just a random question. Something I’ve been thinking about ever since I had watched this random movie one time.” Madison hates lying to her best friend, but it’s the best way to keep her friend safe.

Jakayla stayed quiet, either taking everything in or seeing if Madison is lying, which caused Madison to start second guessing herself.

“Well,” Jakayla begins to speak, “if it was me and I did have bad people after me, then I would trust the two people to help me, if they know how to help me. Maybe tell them about my past or any enemies that I may have to help them figure out why people are after me.”

Madison slowly takes in everything, having a feeling on what she needs to do.

“So what was the movie you saw that made you think about that?”

“Honestly, I don’t remember what it was called. It’s been awhile since I watched it. Sorry.”

Jakayla shakes her head. “Don’t worry. I probably wouldn’t have watched it. Anyways, are you feeling better?”

Madison nods her head. “Yeah. Thanks. Now, I can focus on work.”

Jakayla smiles at her friend. “No problem. Glad I could help.” And with that, Jakayla walks out of the break room.

Madison lets out a small sigh as she walks out of the break room and back to her desk. When she sits down, she grabs her phone and begins to think everything over, taking in what Jakayla had said.

After thinking for a bit, she had come up with three choices: she could A) figure out on her own why Fixers are after her, B) ask her father and T-Bone for help, or C) get help from DedSec, who can help protect her against the Fixers and figure out who is sending them.

She knows she couldn’t figure out on her own due to having no knowledge of hacking – T-Bone tried to teach her one time but she couldn’t catch on – so option A is out. As for option B, she had a feeling that both her father and T-Bone are busy and won’t be able to help her; even though they would probably drop everything to help her but she won’t allow that to happen. So option B is out as well, which leaves option C.

The last time she had been around a DedSec member was three years ago, when Clara was alive. Before finding out that Clara was involved in the hit that Lucky Quinn had set up, her and Madison was close but not close to be friends. But as for dealing with the DedSec group as a whole, she never dealt with them. She knows her father had done some dealings with some of its members but after he had denied their request when he had hacked into CTOS, he never helped them anymore.

Madison lets out a sigh. _I know what I have to do_ , she thought to herself, deciding on what she needs to do to get some answers. She unlocks her phone and pulls up the unknown number – hoping it’s still the same number DedSec uses – and quickly type up: I want to talk and I will only talk with one of you, alone.

After sending the message, Madison relaxes a bit in her chair. But despite being relaxed, she still feel nervous that DedSec won’t reply back and she’ll have to deal with the Fixers on her own or be forced to move someplace else and start living under a different name.

Madison feels her phone vibrate, indicating a message.

 _Please, let it be from DedSec_ , Madison thought as she looks at her phone. She releases her breath, which she didn’t know she was holding until now, when she sees the message is from the same unknown number. Pulling the message up, it read: Meet at Pier 39 when you’re off work. A DedSec member will be waiting for you.

Madison lets out a small sigh as she places her phone on her desk, hoping she made the right decision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Madison stops in front of the sea lions area, fixing her black skirt and pulling her green jacket a bit closer, and then she place her hands on the railing. She wasn’t sure who will be meeting her; it could be Wrench, Marcus, or someone different. If it was someone different, she wouldn’t be able to know if they are in DedSec or not, only knowing two of its members: Wrench and Marcus. But despite that, she has a feeling on who they might’ve sent to meet her.

She wasn’t standing there for long when she feels someone stand beside her. She looks to her left and see Wrench standing there, his back against the fence and his elbows on the railing while having a “^ ^” expression on his mask.

“I had a feeling they would send you,” Madison sarcastically said, looking towards the sea lions.

“You said with only one of us.”

Madison rolls her eyes then whispers to herself, “reminder to self: be specific on who to talk to. If not, I’ll get the masked one.”

Wrench chuckled at what Madison said. “So…why do you want to talk?”

Madison moves her hands from the railing and wraps her arms around her waist. _It’s now or never_ , Madison thought. “I…I want help from DedSec,” Madison spits out. Before Wrench could ask a question, Madison continued. “I figured DedSec could help figure out why Fixers are after me…and maybe…maybe help protect me…if something happens.”

Madison looks at Wrench and sees his goggle has an “O O” expression.

“What changed your mind? Last week, you said you could handle yourself.”

Madison lets out a soft sigh. “I thought it through, coming up with different choices that could help, but I figured DedSec could help me. Plus…I don’t want the past to repeat itself.”

Wrench got curious by what Madison had said, about not wanting the past to repeat, and wanted to ask her about what she meant but he stopped his self from asking, having a feeling she will tell them at some point.

“So, will DedSec help me?” Madison asks, looking at Wrench with a hopeful look.

“I’ll have to ask the others, but I’m sure they would want to help you.” Wrench couldn’t help but smile when he sees Madison having a small smile on her face.

“Thank you, even though you have to ask the others first to see if they want to help me or not, still…thank you.”

Wrench lets out a low chuckle, expressing “^ ^”. “You’re welcome and like I said last week, can’t have damn Fixers mess with a cute girl.”

Madison looks away, feeling a light blush appear on her face. She remembered when Wrench had called her “cute” and she was lucky that it was nighttime at that time. Now, she wasn’t that lucky, due to being in a bright area, and thinking about Wrench spotting the blush on her caused the blush to deepen in color.

“Did…did I say something wrong?” Wrench asked, worried that he might’ve said something he shouldn’t. “I’m sorry if I did!”

Madison shakes her head, trying to make the blush disappear. “No,” she whispers. “It’s just…weird for me to ask for help, I guess.” She didn’t want to tell him that she was blushing due to him telling her that she was cute. Once she knew the blush had disappear, she looks back at him, his mask expressing “! !” as he looks at her. “What?”

Wrench shakes his head as he tries to get words to come out. “Nothing…it’s…nothing. Anyways, I…I should probably go and…and ask the others if they want to help you, which…which I’m probably sure they will want to help.”

Madison nods her head. “Okay,” she tells him. “I need to get home anyway. Just text me an answer, if that’s okay. That way I won’t get a surprise visit from a DedSec member.”

Wrench nods his head. “Sure, I’ll send you an answer.”

Madison smiles towards him. “Thanks. Oh. Is it okay if I save that number? That way I won’t forget whose number it is.”

Wrench nods his head. “Yeah, that’ll be fine. It’s my number, just so you know.”

 _At least I know who sent the first text_ , Madison thought as she smiles toward him. “Thanks. You don’t have to worry about anyone getting it though. I keep my phone locked all the time so no one can get your number.”

“If anyone gets your phone, we can hack into it and delete anything that’s related towards DedSec before they can get into it.”

Madison nods her head. “I’ll be fine with that. I don’t want to cause any trouble towards you guys if you and the others do help me.” Despite wearing a mask, Madison could tell Wrench was smiling. “Anyways, I’ll see ya whenever.”

“See ya and I’ll get back with you with an answer.”

“I’ll be waiting then,” Madison tells him as she starts walking away from him, waving a goodbye.

Wrench waves back and didn’t stop waving until Madison was out of his sight. He then lets out a sigh as he starts walking towards his bike, thinking over what Madison has told him.


	7. Chapter 7

The next day, Madison – still in her pajamas, which is a black shirt and blue and black plaid shorts – is sitting on her bed, looking at an external hard drive that’s in her hands as her mind wonders from one thing to another.

Madison had convinced T-Bone to put everything on an external hard drive. It has information about “Rosalyn Fitzgerald” and “Rosalyn Pearce”, before T-Bone had erased most of it then created “Madison Cooke”, and having the video that Damien recorded when she was being held hostage.

Her reason: she couldn’t let her entire life vanish, despite what had happened when she was growing up. She wanted to remember her life before Damien Brenks came into the picture; remember all the times she spent with her nephew and late niece, her aunt, her adopted father, and her birth parents. All the achievements she accomplished in school and out of school. Her friends that she came to know and spent time with; creating memories, doing class work at each other’s house, having study groups when tests came up but sometimes failing to do actual studying, and having inside jokes that only a few of them would understand.

She didn’t want all those memories to disappear in thin air. She wanted to remember them, even though they’re hidden away.

_Ding-dong_

Madison jumps when she hears her doorbell go off. Putting down the hard drive, she rushes off of her bed and over to a window. She looks outside and sees Wrench and Marcus standing on her front porch.

She quickly goes back to her bed, grabs the hard drive, and puts it back in its hiding spot before rushing downstairs, ignoring the fact that she’s still in her pajamas. When she answers the door, she looks at both men; Wrench leaning against the wall as Marcus stands across from him.

“How did you found out where I live?” Madison asks.

Wrench points at his hoodie, which says “I AM DEDSEC”, and then he said, “We can find out anything.”

 _Figures_ , Madison thought as she rolls her eyes. “Okay then why are you here?”

“We’re here to begin figuring out who’s after you,” Marcus tells her. “If now is a good time. In fact, we should’ve called first to ask and give you a heads up.”

Madison shakes her head. “It’s fine. I’m not doing anything at the moment or planning on going anywhere,” she informs them as she moves aside, letting both males enter her house. She knows that she asked for their help, but she didn’t know that they will come to her house to question her. Ever since moving to San Francisco, she’s been very cautious on whom she lets into her house, fearing who ever she lets in will be a Blume affiliate or a Fixer.

She remember T-Bone telling her that a Blume affiliate can be a regular person and if they spot someone that Blume is after, they won’t hesitate to contact them. She even knows that a Fixer can be anyone as well, which caused her to be cautious of those around her.

“We can tell. You’re still in your pajamas,” Wrench mentions, seeing Madison’s pajamas.

“You should know that I’m completely fine with leaving my house while still in my pajamas.” Madison shuts the front door then walks back to the living room.

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Wrench jokingly said.

Madison walks towards the living room while both of the men follow. But before Marcus and Wrench could do or say anything else, Madison hears Ghost running up the stairs – due to sleeping in his favorite place, under the staircase that leads downstairs – and into the living room. Seeing new people, he starts jumping on Marcus, making him laugh and start petting him.

“Cute dog, what’s his name?” Marcus asks.

“Ghost. I named him after a dire wolf in Game of Thrones.” Madison looks at Wrench and sees him frozen in his spot. Despite wearing a mask, she could guess that he probably looked like he’s seen a ghost. “What’s wrong, Wrench?”

Marcus looks at Wrench. Knowing what’s wrong, he says, “He has a dislike for animals.”

“Why?” Madison asks, either to Marcus or Wrench.

“They’re all evolving to replace us on the food chain!” Wrench exclaims, causing Ghost to become a bit more excited.

Madison lets out a small chuckle, knowing Ghost loves to meet new people – no matter where they’re at. She watches as Ghost run towards Wrench, jumping on him as well and causing Wrench to become nervous and freeze up even more (if that was even possible).

“Can someone…um…get him…away?” Wrench stumbles with his words as he tries to push the dog away with his foot, which causes Ghost to get more excited and continue to jump on him.

Madison walks over and picks Ghost up. “Come on, Ghost. I bet you want some fresh air.” She walks over to the sliding door that leads to her deck and puts Ghost outside after opening the door.

Luckily, Ghost isn’t able to squeeze through the fencing. Madison had made sure to have a wired fence installed with the existing fence when she first got Ghost. So when she’s sitting on the deck, either to relax or read, she won’t have to worry about Ghost jumping down and hurting his self.

After closing the door, Madison heads back to Wrench and Marcus then sit down on one end of the couch. “By the way, Wrench, you do know that’s not going to happen. Animals aren’t going to replace us on the food chain.”

“It will happen, just wait and see,” Wrench whispers, sits down at the other end of the couch as Marcus sits down at the armchair.

“So, what do you want to know?” Madison asks.

“Well, who might be after you?” Marcus asks. “Do you have anyone in mind?”

Madison simply shrugs her shoulders. “Anyone who is my dad’s enemy.”

“Can you list off some?” Wrench asked then he adds, “If you’re able to.”

Madison lets out a small sigh. “Let’s see. DedSec but the ones in Chicago; Iraq but he’s dead; Lucky Quinn, dead; Defalt but I’m not sure what happened to him.” Madison paused for a second, biting the inside of her left cheek. “Damien Brenks…dead,” she whispers his name, hating that fact that she brought him back up.

Marcus and Wrench notices how Madison acted differently when she mentioned a man named Damien Brenks. They wanted to ask who the man was, curious about him and why she acted differently, but they decided not to. Figuring that maybe one day, she’ll tell them about her past when she’s ready.

Instead, Marcus asks, “Anyone who might be alive.”

Madison thought for a while until she remembers a certain Fixer, who suddenly appeared in San Francisco not too long ago, around the time the Fixer incident happened. Madison nods her head. “Yeah, a Fixer name Jordi Chin. He used to help my dad with certain things until he got a new contract. He might’ve gotten a contract to look for me.”

“What does he look like?” Wrench asks.

Madison gets up from the couch and walk over to the connected kitchen. She grabs her phone off the counter and brings up the picture she sent to her father. “I got a picture of him when I was taking pictures for my job.” She hands her phone to Marcus so he can look at it first, due to sitting in the armchair. Madison then sits back down in her spot.

“I should include that he may or may not know that I live in San Francisco now, but knowing him and being able to find anyone, he could know where I am,” Madison voices before remembering something. “I should also warn you that you probably won’t find anything about him online. I think he either had meddled with the ctOS or Blume has no information on him.”

Marcus lets out a sigh as he hands the phone to Wrench so he can get a better look at the photo. “Thanks for the warning and until we can figure out if it’s this Jordi guy that sent those Fixers after you, we’re going to be watching you, keeping an eye out for either Jordi or anyone else suspicious.”

Madison nods her head as Wrench pass her phone to her. She didn’t want to tell them about the cameras she had set up around her house, recording everything when she isn’t home or asleep, because she knows that they would hack into them like they did with her phone. She would become uncomfortable; knowing a group of hackers is watching her through her cameras.

Not mentioning the cameras, Madison says, “I’m fine with that, just as long as you don’t hack into anything that I own anymore, that includes any phone calls I make, unless something bad happens.” She figures if she tells them that, they’ll know not to hack into the cameras when they find out about them.

Both Marcus and Wrench nod their head.

“We promise,” Wrench says.

“If this makes up for before, we’re sorry for hacking into your phone,” Marcus apologizes.

“It’s okay,” Madison tells him. “Just don’t do it again, please. I’ll like my phone conversations private, especially between me and my dad.”

“Then we won’t unless you tell us otherwise,” Wrench says.

Madison nods her head then whisper, “thank you.”


	8. Chapter 8

Sitting in her entertainment room, Madison is working on a random drawing. Her entertainment room is downstairs, near her garage, and it’s the one area of her house that she likes to sit and draw in. She has a TV in the room but she usually has it on for background noise when she draws.

She’s been working on the drawing since her had gotten home earlier from doing some food shopping and being a bit lazy, she didn’t change out of clothes – a black tank top, white knit sweater, dark jean distressed shorts, and a dream catcher necklace. She took her shoes off so her feet could relax from being in black Converses for most of the morning. Drawing has been the one activity to help keep her mind settled from everything.

It’s been a week since Marcus and Wrench came to her house and she told them a bit about Jordi Chin. Since then, she hasn’t heard anything from either guys or any other member. A part of her knows that she’ll hear from them at some point or they’re watching her from a distance.

_Knock-knock_

Madison stops drawing when she hears a knocking from a glass door. She looks up and see Wrench outside, his mask showing “^ ^” while his body leans against the wall. Madison gets up and walks towards the glass door.

“How did you know I was down here?” Madison asks after she opens the door.

“You didn’t answer your front door so I decided to take a look around.”

Madison lets out a sigh. “Sorry. When I start drawing, everything around me disappears.” Madison walks back to the couch and got back in her comfort position. “Usually Ghost’s barking pulls me back if someone is at the front door,” she whispers. “Guess he’s passed out somewhere.”

As Madison starts drawing again, Wrench starts looking around. His eyes soon land on some pictures. A few were of her and her two best friends, hanging around San Francisco, while the other ones where of her and her father.

“Can I say it’s still a surprise that you’re The Fox’s daughter?”

“And he’s quite protective over me, has been since he adopted me.”

Wrench wanted to ask about her birth parents but he stopped his self, knowing that she will say more about herself when she’s ready. Looking away from the pictures, Wrench walks over and sits next to Madison. “Have you done anything more entertaining than going to the club and working?”

Madison shakes her head, not taking her eyes off her drawing.

“What about in Chicago?”

“Not even there, considering I was busy with school and hiding from people who were after my dad.”

Madison lets out a gasp when Wrench grabs her tablet and sets it on her coffee table. He then scoot a bit closer, not enough to fully invade her personal space.

“Wha-what are you…um…doing?”

“Let’s go do something fun,” Wrench said in an amusing voice, his mask expressing “~.^”.

“I-I can’t…I’m busy…working on a…um…project.” Madison didn’t mean to sound like she’s lying; she didn’t feel like going around the area with a DedSec member she hardly knew.

“You can finish it another day. Come on. Let’s get you out of your house.”

Madison brings a hand up and puts her index finger against Wrench’s shoulder, pushing him away from her. “What about Fixers? Don’t want them jumping us.”

“Like I’ll allow Fixers to jump us so we’ll be fine.” Wrench grabs Madison’s hand, gently holding it in his. “So what do you say?”

Madison stares at Wrench as she makes up her mind. “Okay, fine.” Despite the mask, Madison could sense that he’s smiling. “Just let me put my shoes back on.”

“Sweet!” Wrench exclaims as Madison gets up and goes into the hallway, putting her shoes back on. Once she was done, Wrench grabs Madison’s hand again and starts pulling her outside. “Let’s go!” Wrench brings Madison outside and towards his bike. “Hopefully, you remember that I like to go fast.” Wrench gets on his bike, starting the engine up.

Madison nods her head as she sits behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and being careful with the spikes. “I do, but don’t crash.”

“I won’t. Trust me,” Wrench reassures her as he starts driving down the road.

“Where are we going to, by the way?” Madison asks.

“You’ll see.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wrench parks his bike as Madison look towards Coit Tower. She’s been here before, when she was a kid and when she became friends with Jakayla and Dawn. “Why are we here?” Madison asks, looking towards Wrench.

“We’re going to take a picture for our DedSec followers,” he answers, pulling his phone out.

“Why am I here then? I’m not a DedSec member.” Madison walks over to the steps and sits down, having her back towards the tower. She didn’t mind being outside, but her eyes would occasionally dart towards people and seeing if she could see any Fixers or anyone who could be one.

So far: nothing.

She feels Wrench sits next to her then an arm wrapping around her shoulder. “Due to you being under DedSec’s watch, you’re apart of the group,” he semi-whisper.

Madison looks at Wrench. “You do know I can’t hack like you or everyone else in the group.”

“I can show you some hacks, if you want. I won’t show you anything hard, mostly easy ones.”

Madison lightly shakes her head. “I tried years ago and I couldn’t get the hang of it.”

“Who tried to teach you before?”

“T-Bone,” Madison whispers his name, “or as you may know him as Raymond Kenney.”

“So you really do know him?!” Wrench didn’t mean to sound surprise – already knowing that she knows Raymond Kenney since he and the others listened in on a phone conversation between her, her father, and Raymond – but it had come out by accident.

“Yes, I know him. He’s like an uncle to me since he helped me and mostly my dad with some things back home. How do you know about T-Bone?”

“DedSec basically look up to Raymond Kenney! After the blackout he caused in 2003, he became highly revered to DedSec! We also see him as a hero and a hacking legend!”

Madison feels her stomach drop as she look towards the ground. She remembers when T-Bone had told her about the Northeast Blackout of 2003 and how he felt extreme guilt over the deaths that happened. She knows that despite sending a message to show the dangers of an entire infrastructure relying on one system, he was feeling guilty at the end and lead him to go ‘off the grid’ to avoid detection.

“Well, that would make him well known in the hacking world,” she softly say.

Wrench noticed the change of behavior, seeing a sad smile on Madison’s face. It caused his heart to break a bit. Quickly changing the subject, he brings his phone up. “Hey, smile.”

Madison looks back at Wrench. “Why?”

Wrench chuckles. “For the picture, silly.”

“Do I have to be in the picture?”

Wrench nods his head. “Yep!”

Not wanting to fight about not wanting to be in the picture, she lets out a small sigh.

Wrench holds up his phone. “Ready?”

Madison nods as she pushes some hair behind an ear and put on a simple, gentle smile on her face. Seeing Madison smile made Wrench smile and made his heart skip a beat as well.

After positioning his phone to show both of them and the Coit Tower in the background, Wrench snaps the picture. He then brings the picture up and looks at it, still smiling under his mask. “What do you think?” Wrench asks Madison, letting her see the picture.

“I like it.”

Wrench nods his head as he sends it to her. “I do want to know one thing, if that’s okay,” he says as he puts his phone up.

Madison nods her head, letting him know to ask away.

“How good are you at-”

“Protecting myself?” Madison cuts Wrench off, finishing his question.

Wrench nods his head. “How did you know?”

Madison shrugs her shoulders. “Lucky guess. I’m good with melee weapons and I’m somewhat decent with guns. T-Bone showed me different ways to protect myself back home. Melee weapons are my number one thing to go to.”

“Is it okay that I want to test you to see how good you are with guns?”

Madison looks at Wrench. “What?! You don’t think I’m able to protect myself?”

Wrench shakes his head. “No! I know you can but I want to see how “decent” you say you are with guns,” he said, his mask showing quotation marks when he said decent.

Madison rolls her eyes then say, “Whatever you say.”

Right as Wrench let out a chuckle, his phone goes off. He checks his phone and sees a message from Marcus. “Marcus wants me to bring you to the Hackerspace to meet everyone,” he tells Madison, looking up from his phone after sending a quick reply. He then removes his arm from around Madison’s shoulder and gently grabs her hand in his, pulling her up from the ground after standing up and begin walking to his bike.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After walking through a store called Gary’s Games & Glory, Wrench opens a secret door in the back and allows Madison to enter first. “Ladies first.”

Madison, secretly rolling her eyes, walks past Wrench and into the secret DedSec base. The first thing she saw was graffiti on the walls, even after she walk down the staircase and into the main area of the base. On one wall, there’s a printer, a 3-D printer, and a workstation with a “The Wrench Bench” sign over it. She looks to her right and sees a couch with lockers and a vending machine in a small area. Next to it is another area with two computer desks. She then looks in front of her and sees a table in the middle, a couch facing towards a wall, and a wall with multiple TVs attached to it.

“Welcome to the Hackerspace!” Wrench announced, standing in front of her. “How do you like it?”

Madison shrugs her shoulders. “It can’t beat the Bunker back home.”

“What’s the Bunker?”

“The Bunker was an old Blume-owned CTOS test site and it’s on an island. It looks like a warehouse outside, but inside is actually a pretty decent base. My dad said that he and another hacker found it after he had blown up his room at a motel he was staying at. My dad used it as a base of operations, along with the other hacker and T-Bone.” Madison puts her hands on the back of the couch that’s near the staircase and lean against it. “Unlike this place, the way to get in is you have to get into a shipping crate, which becomes like an elevator and takes you to the Bunker.” Madison bites her lower lip, remembering all the times she spent in the Bunker.

Before Wrench can say anything, they hear the door open. Madison moves away from the couch and closer to Wrench.

The first person Madison saw is Marcus, then a woman with black hair with purple in it, then a male wearing a green hoodie, and then another African-American man.

“So this must be the Mystery Girl?” the woman spoke.

Madison looks at Wrench, her arms crossed over her chest. “Mystery Girl?”

Wrench raised his hands. “It’s fitting.”

“Ignore him,” the woman said. “I’m Sitara.”

“Horatio,” the African-American man said.

“And this is Josh.” Sitara places a hand on the male wearing a green hoodie.

“Rose or while in public, I go by Madison.”

“Man, it feels so great having another artist in the group!” Sitara exclaims.

“You’re an artist too?” Madison asks.

Sitara nods her head. “Most of the graphics DedSec uses is done by me. So it’s quite nice to know another artist.”

Madison nods her head in agreement. She always enjoy meeting other artists outside of her work and knowing there’s a woman who’s an artist in DedSec made her a bit more comfortable with the group.

“Why are you grabbing a gun?” Marcus asked.

Madison turns her attention to Wrench, who’s grabbing a pistol with a scope and a silencer. Madison lets out a sigh. “He wants to test me on how decent I am with guns,” Madison explains.

“Did someone train you before?” Sitara asks.

Madison nods her head. “T-Bone showed me how to protect myself, back home.”

“And where exactly are you going to take her to shot guns, Wrench?” Horatio asks.

“I know a place, don’t worry. Besides, they’re silenced. No one will know we’re shooting guns. Let’s go, Rose!” Wrench puts an arm around Madison’s shoulder and walks her out.

“We’re not gonna let her go by herself with him, are we?” Horatio asks the rest of the group after Wrench and Madison left.

“Hell no!” Sitara exclaimed, walking towards the entrance. “No one should be left alone with him.”

“Even though she was alone with him earlier,” Josh mentions.

“Well, she shouldn’t be alone with him a second time in one day,” Sitara reasons. “Besides, I wanna see what she can do.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone arrives to the Southeast side of Yerba Buena Island and both Sitara and Marcus are setting up empty cans as Josh and Horatio sit on some rocks. Wrench walks over to Madison and hands her the pistol.

“There’s a scope so you can use it if you want to or not.”

Madison takes the gun and holds it up, looking through the scope. Marcus and Sitara join Josh and Horatio on the rocks after they’re done setting up about five cans on different heights. She steadies her hands as she places the scope crosshairs on one of the cans.

“Whenever you’re ready, go-”

Madison pulls the trigger and knocks down one can then another until all five of them was gone. She looks at Wrench and sees Wrench’s mask showing a surprise look.

“What?”

“Okay, that was NOT somewhat decent. Are you sure you weren’t trained in a secret military base and not by Raymond Kenney? Or are you some sort of secret agent like James Bond?”

“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. You’ll have to figure that out,” she jokes with Wrench.

Wrench smirks under his mask as everyone else runs over to him.

“Okay. Were you trained in a secret underground gang or something? Cause that was awesome,” Marcus states. “I’m pretty sure those were all headshots.”

“Not only are you an artist but a fucking badass too!” Sitara exclaims.

Madison simply smiles at them.

After the gun show, everyone decides to relax on the beach. Sitara had brought beer for everyone and some sodas for Josh. Marcus had made a small bonfire for them to sit around.

“I still can’t believe Marcus and Wrench were the first ones to meet Rose,” Sitara says, taking a sip of her beer.

“Actually, it was Wrench who first met me. I didn’t meet Marcus until he nearly destroyed my car.” Madison takes a small sip of her beer, remembering the night she met Wrench for the first time.

“I didn’t nearly destroy your car. It was the Fixers. Besides, I safely drove your car away from the danger without getting a single scratch or dent.”

“Still, you’re never allowed to drive my car, even if Fixers are after me.”

Marcus lets out a groan, which caused everyone to laugh.

“I do want to ask, Rose, why hide under a different name?” Horatio asks.

Madison takes another small sip of her beer. “Blume. After everything my dad did, he wanted me to go someplace safe, in case Blume decided to come after me to get to him. I changed my name and moved here.”

“But you still talk to him,” Marcus states. “Surely Blume could track the phone calls to either one of you.”

Madison shakes her head. “T-Bone makes sure no one tracks the call. If anyone is tracking the call, he tells my dad to cut it. So far, _no one else_ has been able to track the call.” She looks at Wrench and Marcus.

Both of them shrugged.

“Who erased your information?” Josh asks.

“T-Bone is to thanks for that. After my dad suggested me leaving, T-Bone made sure Rosalyn Pearce and Rosalyn Fitzgerald disappeared, only leaving some information behind.”

“Which would explain why Josh could hardly find information on you,” Sitara mentions.

Madison nods her head. “Need to make sure anyone who is my dad’s enemy can’t find me, that’s including Blume. Anyone who looks up one of the names won’t find anything. If they see my picture online, it’ll be attached with the name of Madison Cooke.” She takes another small sip of her beer.

“That…is…smart!” Marcus exclaimed, “Which is probably why nobody has found you in three years.”

“Until you and Wrench found me,” Madison whispers.

“Hey! If we didn’t, those damn Fixers would’ve taken you!” Wrench exclaims, his mask showing exclamation marks.

“And I appreciate that.”

“We did get to see you lay a punch on one of them.” Marcus lets out a chuckle. “That was a pretty good punch.”

Wrench lets out a chuckle as well. “Yeah, it was.”

“Man, I wish I saw that punch,” Sitara admits.

“Me too,” Horatio admits as well.

Josh slightly nods his head, agreeing as well.

Madison simply rolls her eyes. “Maybe you will, one day.” She then takes a sip of her beer.

As everyone continues to talk, Madison looks around the group, smiling on the inside. She was glad that she decided to get help from them; even happy that she doesn’t have to go into hiding again and have a new name. She didn’t want to leave her two best friends behind and have them wonder what happened to her.

_I think I made the right decision_ , she thinks to herself, taking a sip of her beer.

For the rest of the night, they hang around on the beach and enjoy their drinks.


	9. Chapter 9

Leaning over a table, Wrench is typing away on his laptop, going through different databases and search engines. He’s been doing some more research on Madison since he got to his garage that morning. Reason why: he wanted to find a bit more information that wasn’t erased and wasn’t already found by Josh.

Since the group learned that T-Bone is the reason behind some of Madison’s information being erased, he wanted to see if there was any that wasn’t and that could possibly be useful in finding who’s behind the Fixers. He also knows Madison told Marcus and him about a Fixer name Jordi Chin, but there was no point in looking him up since she told them that Jordi may have meddled with the ctOS or Blume.

Keeping that in mind, he decided to look up Rosalyn Pearce, even looking up Rosalyn Fitzgerald. Josh had found out her previous last name before she was adopted so he decided to use that last name as well.

His research so far: hardly anything.

The only stuff he found were some articles: one on her birth parents’ death and one on a little girl named Lena Pearce’s death. Most of the other stuff he found was already found by Josh. Other than that, there was hardly anything that could help for this situation. He even tried looking up her birth parents and after looking them up, there was hardly any information that he deemed to be helpful.

“What’re you doing, man?” Marcus asks as he stands in front of the table.

Wrench jumps a little from hearing Marcus’s voice. He was deep in thought that he didn’t hear Marcus entering his garage. “Um…just looking up Jordi, that’s all,” Wrench answers, closing his laptop. He knows Marcus would catch on to the lie, but he had to say something quick, even if what he said wasn’t completely true.

Marcus crosses his arms across his chest and looks directly at Wrench. “You do know there’s probably no information on him online since Rose told us he could’ve messed with it.” Marcus starts walking from his spot behind the table and stop on the side of the table. “So what were you really looking up?”

Wrench lets out a sigh, knowing he’s going to have to tell Marcus. “I’m seeing if I could find any other information on Rose that wasn’t erased.”

“Did you find anything?” Marcus asks.

“Only a few articles. One on her birth parents’ death and another on a little girl, who I think was her niece. I even tried her birth parents, but nothing. Everything else that I found, Josh had found already.”

Marcus nods his head then an thought popped in his mind. He gives Wrench a smirk, which caused Wrench to curse in his head. “So, why are you looking her up when you could simple go to her and ask?” Marcus steps closer to Wrench. “Is it ‘cause of your crush on her?”

Wrench looks at Marcus with “O.O” showing on his mask. “What…what gives you that idea?! I don’t have a crush on her!”

As if Marcus had practiced this before, he asked, “then why were you doing heart eyes last week when all of us were hanging out at the beach?”

“I…uh…shut up!” Wrench was glad for wearing a mask because if he wasn’t, Marcus would see the blush appearing on his face.

Marcus walks over to Wrench and wraps an arm around his shoulder. “Man, its okay if you do. It’s normal to have a crush on someone and I think you and Rose would look good together.”

“I don’t have a crush on her, Marcus!” Wrench moves away, causing Marcus’s arm to fall back to his side. Wrench knows Marcus is right, about him having a crush on Rose. He knows if he told Marcus he’s right, Marcus would tease him about it and there will probably be no end to it.

“What could possibly be stopping you from realizing that you do?” Marcus asks.

Wrench lets out a sigh before turning around and look at Marcus. “She’s the daughter of the Chicago Vigilante, who could probably make me disappear if I do anything wrong to her.”

“Like you could possibly do anything bad to her,” Marcus reassures Wrench.

Wrench puts his hands on the table, gripping the edges. “I know I’ll hurt her somehow if anything happened between us.”

Marcus walks over to Wrench and puts a hand on his shoulder. “You won’t hurt her if you truly care for her that much.”

“But what if I do hurt her?” Wrench whispers.

Before Marcus could answer, another voice came in, causing both men to jump.

“Who won’t he hurt?”

Both men turn around and see Sitara walking towards them, having a piece of paper in her hand. “Sitara, what are you doing here?” Marcus asks, taking his hand off of Wrench’s shoulder.

Sitara holds up the piece of paper. “Rose sent us this, saying she hopes this will help.” She hands them the paper. Marcus takes the paper and sees it’s a better picture of Jordi Chin. “She told us that she would’ve brought it over to us after work but something came up at work so she sent it to me. She said that she was looking through some pictures she had saved on a flash drive from when she was living in Chicago and found a better picture of Jordi.”

Marcus smiles at Sitara as he hands the picture to Wrench. “Thanks for bringing this over, Sitara.”

“You’re welcome. So what were you two talking about?” Sitara asks, leaning against one of the posts.

Marcus nods his head towards Wrench. “Wrench has a crush on-” Marcus was cut off when an empty beer can hit his head. He looks toward Wrench, glaring at him, as Wrench’s goggles show an angry emote. “What the fuck, man?!” Marcus yells at Wrench.

“We weren’t talking about nothing,” Wrench said, hoping to lead Sitara off. He already has Marcus on his ass about his crush on Rose and he doesn’t need Sitara knowing about it, too. And knowing Sitara, she’ll tell Horatio and Josh about it as well.

Sitara rolls her eyes at both men. “You two are being really weird.” She pushes herself off the post. “I’m heading back to HQ. You two can continue talking about Wrench’s crush on Rose.” She points at both of them as she walks towards an exit.

_Shit,_ Wrench thought to his self, surprised by what Sitara said. His goggles changes to a surprise expression. “How do you know that?”

Sitara looks at him, a smirk on her face. “I can tell. See yah!” She waves at them as she leaves the garage.

Once he knows Sitara is far enough from his garage, Wrench lets out a groan as he punches the table. “Shit!” He looks over at Marcus, seeing him having a small smirk on his face. “Man, if Sitara knows, does that mean Josh and Horatio knows too? What if Rose already knows?”

Marcus wipes the smirk off his face as he sees his best friend panicking. “Josh and Horatio may know and if they don’t, Sitara will probably tell them now after she saw how you reacted. And I doubt Rose knows,” Marcus reassures him.

Wrench looks at Marcus. “But what if she does know?”

Marcus starts smiling. “If she does and feels the same way, then it’ll be easy for the both of you to tell each other how you feel!”

Wrench lets out a quiet sigh, ignoring the answer Marcus gave him due to being something he didn’t want to hear. “Not what I wanted to hear, man. And even _if_ that was what I wanted to hear, it doesn’t help me deal with the fact that she might know.”

“Man, I’ve never seen you act like this about a girl. I mean, there was that time you had a crush on that waitress, but you didn’t act like this back then. This is a surprise.”

Wrench grabs another beer can and throws it at Marcus, who manages to dodge the can this time. “Shut up, man!”


End file.
